Hit the North

"Hit the North" was released as a single in October 1987 and reached number 57 on the UK singles chart. Smith wrote the lyrics, and the music was by Simon Rogers and Brix Smith. Rogers made the backing on a newly bought Sequential Circuits Studio 440 sequencer-sampler. Smith liked it and asked for a tape. The song was recorded in July 1987 at Abbey Road Studios during the sessions for The Frenz Experiment, with Rogers producing and Ian Grimble engineering, and the drums were replaced by samples of Simon Wolstencroft's playing.

Smith improvised the lyrics around the double meaning of "hit", either to go to a place or to punish it. The video was shot in an old bingo hall in Blackpool, with the regulars as extras, and Kid Congo Powers dances in some shots. Smith considered the record a commercial failure and said the band lost half their fan base with it because everybody thought it was disco. Ned Raggett of AllMusic called it one of the most musically conventional numbers the group had ever recorded. The Guardian lists it among singles that would flirt with success. Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe took the title for a 1990 BBC Radio 5 series.

There are 143 logged setlists, the first on 1 July 1987 and the last on 8 March 2006.